T-Shirts & More
Order men's and women's T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Aprons, Mugs, Caps, Tote Bags, Flasks, and more, all imprinted with the Pitmaster Club logo. There's even a spiral bound journal where you can make notes on your cooks.

Cool Embroidered Shirt
This beautifully embroidered shirt is the same one Meathead wears in public and on TV. It's wash and wear and doesn't need ironing (really!), but it is a soft cottonlike feel. Choice of four colors and both men's and women's.

Many merchants pay us a small referral fee when you click our links and purchase from them. On Amazon it works on everything from grills to diapers, they never tell us what you bought, and it has zero impact on the price you pay, but has a major impact on our ability to improve this site! And remember, we only recommend products we love. If you like AmazingRibs.com, please save this link and use it every time you go to Amazon.

SPOTLIGHT

Some Of Our Favorite
Tools And Toys

Surely you know somebody who loves outdoor cooking who deserves a gift for the holidays, birthday, anniversary, or just for being wonderful. There he is, right in the mirror! Here are our selections of best ideas, all Platinum or Gold Medalists, listed by price.

If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the Slow 'N' Sear

Bring The Heat With Broil King Signet's Dual Tube Burners

The Broil King Signet 320 is a modestly priced, 3-burner gas grill that packs a lot of value and power under the hood. Broil King's proprietary, dual-tube burners get hot fast and are able to achieve high, searing temps that rival most comparatively priced gas grills. The quality cast aluminum housing carries a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

The Good-One Is A Superb Grill And A Superb Smoker All In One

The Good-One Open Range is a charcoal grill with an offset smoke chamber attached. It is dramatically different from a traditional offset smoker. The grill sits low in front and doubles as a firebox for the smoke chamber which is spliced on above and behind so it can work like a horizontal offset smoker only better. By placing the heat source behind and under the smokebox instead of off to the side, Open Range produces even temperature from left to right, something almost impossible to achieve with a standard barrel shaped offset.

Griddle And Deep Fryer All In One

The flat top does the burgers and the fryer does the fries. Use the griddle for bacon, eggs, and home fries. Or pancakes, fajitas, grilled cheese, you name it. Why stink up the house deep frying and spatter all over? Do your fried chicken and calamari outside. Blackstone's Rangetop Combo With Deep Fryer does it all. Plus it has a built in cutting board, garbage bag holder, and paper towel holder. An additional work table on the left side provides plenty of counter space.

The Pit Barrel Cooker May Be Too Easy

The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers in the hardware stores because temperature control is so much easier. Best of all, it is only 9 delivered to your door!

The Swiss Army Knife Of Thermometers

The smart folks at ThermoWorks have finally done it: The Swiss Army Knife of thermometers, two in one. Start with the industry standard food thermometer, the Thermapen MK4, (Platinum Medal winner) truly instant (2 to 3 seconds) precise (+ or – 0.7°F). Then they built in an infrared thermometer ideal for measuring the temps of pizza stones, griddles, and frying pans (also great for finding leaks around doors and windows in your house).

The Cool Kettle With The Hinged Hood We Always Wanted

Their NK22CK-C Charcoal Kettle Grill puts a few spins on the familiar kettle design. In fact, the hinged lid with a handle on the front, spins in a rotary motion 180 degrees. It's hard to beat a Weber kettle, but Napoleon holds its own and adds some unique features to make the NK22CK-C a viable alternative.

G&F Suede Welder's Gloves

Heat Resistant Gloves With Extra Long Sleeves Hold The Hot Stuff

If you're using oven mitts at the grill, it's time to trade up. Say hello to these suede welder's gloves. They're heat resistant enough to handle hot grill grates, and flexible enough to handle tongs. The extra long sleeves even let you reach deep into the firebox to move hot logs without getting burned. Our Fave.

GrillGrates Take Gas Grills To The Infrared Zone

GrillGrates(TM) amplify heat, prevent flareups, make flipping foods easier, keep small foods from committing suicide, kill hotspots, are easier to clean, flip over to make a fine griddle, and can be easily removed and moved from one grill to another. You can even throw wood chips, pellets, or sawdust between the rails and deliver a quick burst of smoke to whatever is above. Every gas grill needs them.

Our Favorite Backyard Smoker

The amazing Karubecue is the most innovative smoker in the world. The quality of meat from this machine is astonishing. At its crux is a patented firebox that burns logs above the cooking chamber and sucks heat and extremely clean blue smoke into the thermostat controlled oven. It is our favorite smoker, period.

Masterbuilt MPS 340/G ThermoTemp XL Propane Smoker

The First Propane Smoker With A Thermostat Makes This Baby Foolproof

Set ThermoTemp's dial from 175° to 350°F and the thermostat inside will adjust the burner just like an indoor kitchen oven. All you need to do is add wood to the tray above the burner to start smokin'.

Professional Steakhouse Knife Set

Our founder, Meathead, wanted the same steak knives used by steakhouses such as Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's, Kobe Club, Palm, and many others. So he located the manufacturer and had them stamp our name on some. They boast pointed, temper-ground, serrated, high-carbon stainless-steel, half-tang blades with excellent cutting edge ability. The beefy hardwood handle provides a comfortable grip secured by three hefty rivets. He has machine washed his more than 100 times. They have never rusted and they stay shiny without polishing. Please note that we do not make, sell, or distribute these knives, they just engrave them with our name.

Is This Superb Charcoal Grill A Kamado Killer?

The PK-360, with 360 square inches of cooking space, this rust free, cast aluminum charcoal grill is durable and easy to use. Four-way venting means it's easy to set up for two zone cooking with more control than single vent Kamado grills. It is much easier to set up for 2-zone cooking than any round kamado. Beautifully designed and completely portable. Meathead says it is his preferrred grill.

Finally, A Great Portable Pellet Smoker

Green Mountain's portable Davy Crockett Pellet Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it's also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Davy Crocket from your smart phone or laptop.

I may get trashed for this... But my wife bought a cheaper set of skillets for our travel trailer. It had extremely rough surface from the factory. I took 60 grit palm sander to it and knocked down the peaks. Not to the point of being smooth, but not nearly as high peaks. Did three cycles of heating, using olive oil (didn't know I needed flax), put in the oven upside down and cooked to 325 for 35 minutes, let cool in the oven. It looks good, haven't cooked with either one yet.

Comment

I am re-seasoning a lodge cast 12 inch and a lodge carbon steel paella pan this weekend, i have a lodge griddle that is next up. Mine were gumming up and sticky almost look like sap had dripped all over them. But it was my poor understanding of seasoning them both pre & post cook that was the issue. I was really nervous about stripping them of all seasoning and starting over. I wish I would have taken photos of the process, I will likely document my griddle, and am now interested in looking for steal deals on old and bad shape cast iron pans. I did the Oven cleaning method of removing the old seasoning. Wow does that strip it over everything, when I saw them come out, my doubt and fear rose quite a bit. But, I am in my 4th coating of flax seed ( I am doing one more), crazy how easy this process is. They look so good, very happy I did this. I definitely over oiled them before, and literally did very little correct with them. I think if nothing else, this process has taught me more about these pans needs for cooking. I am baking them at 400 for 2 hours each layer.

Comment

I've never tried flax seed oil: too perishable, too expensive, takes more coats that I like to do (lazy).

I know everyone has their own technique and battles can be fought over this, but here is what I do: I use lard or bacon grease, same as Grandma. Into the oven at 350 for 1 hour, then to 400 for 30 minutes, then to 450 for 30 minutes. Only need to do it once, then I use the cast iron piece for frying for the first few cooks before cooking other things. Skillets, domed lids, and Dutch ovens go in upside down so any excess oil I missed can drain off.

Richard Cruz If you have a sticky surface there are two culprits. Too much oil and/or not enough heat.

When you are applying your oil, make sure to re-wipe it to ensure all the excess oil is removed. It will feel like you are wiping all the oil off the surface but there will be a micro layer of oil on there surface of the iron. That is what you want for your next seasoning layer.

After heating, (I go to about 450-500) Make sure to let the pans cool as slowly as possible. (That is why kamados are great for seasoning cast iron) The slower it cools, the better your seasoning layer will be. Without going too far into the weeds here....basically, the slower it cools, the better the polymer lattice will bind and set up. Then the tougher your layer of seasoning will be.

Keep it simple. These (CI) are tough old coots from before modern technology. Season em once, especially if they’ve been preseasoned. You shouldn’t have to strip than do multiple layers. I think ya might be over thinking the care of Cast Iron. After you season em, fagettaboutit, cook, cook, cook. We have a friend who cooks with two skillets she’s been cooking with for 40 years, one of em was her mother’s. She’s never stripped em & never reseasoned em. I’ve got a couple of old timers 70 to 80 years old, from my mother-in-law, never touched em except to cook with. My Stargazer, I added one seasoning to the pre-job and that’s it for over two years, & I use it a lot. Simple my man, simple. Cook on! 🕶
PS. A little story with my mother-in-law. All her life she cleaned them with the rest of her stuff in the sink with plenty of soap. My wife learned well from my MiL. It wasn’t until about a dozen years ago I learned how to treat the beauties. I started off the same way you did, treating them precisely with kid gloves. They are the ultimate take a beating & keeps on ticking item. Now, well, I don’t use soap, but hot water & a scraper if needed & let em go. Dry em on heat from a burner, not high, just to dry. Same as I do with my woks.

Another PS. I realized this was an older thread, message was for Richard Chrz . Thank you vera much (in my best Elvis voice).

Comment

I've got a 10 to 15 year old Lodge 12" skillet that we never intentionally seasoned - it just got seasoned through use - I sure knew nothing about seasoning when I got it. We just knew to oil the pan each use at first. My new Lodge dutch oven came pre-seasoned, but I was sure to oil it well the first few uses as well, and now it seems pretty non-stick. I think that factory seasoning is marginal at best. Certainly nothing like your 10 layers of flax seed oil!

The last few Lodge pieces I've bought have actually had pretty good seasoning straight out of the box. A couple layers of avocado or grapeseed oil on the cooking surface, just done on the stove top, and good to go. Granted, my griddle took a bit more work, but really not that much.

About this website. AmazingRibs.com is all about the science of barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking, with great BBQ recipes, tips on technique, and unbiased equipment reviews. Learn how to set up your grills and smokers properly, the thermodynamics of what happens when heat hits meat, as well as hundreds of excellent tested recipes including all the classics: Baby back ribs, spareribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, burgers, chicken, smoked turkey, lamb, steaks, barbecue sauces, spice rubs, and side dishes, with the world's best buying guide to barbecue smokers, grills, accessories, and thermometers, edited by Meathead.

Advertising on this site. AmazingRibs.com is by far the most popular barbecue website in the world and one of the 50 most popular food websites in the US according to comScore, Quantcast, Compete, and Alexa. Visitors and pageviews increase rapidly every year. Click here for analytics and advertising info.

Our Privacy Promise, Terms of Service, Code of Ethics. AmazingRibs.com promises to never sell or distribute any info about you individually without your express permission, and we promise not to, ahem, pepper you with email or make you eat spam. We are GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulations as passed by the European Union). GDPR requires that we be willing to delete any info we have about an EU resident if you request it. We go a step further. We extend this right to anyone, EU resident or not. For more about our privacy promise, code of ethics, terms of service, and how we operate to insure you unbiased info, click here.